Supreme Court to women of Wal-Mart: You can proceed...on your own

6/23/2011, 1:03 p.m.

On Monday, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of Wal-Mart in a sex discrimination case.

The Court unanimously ruled that a lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. cannot proceed as a class action, which reverses the decision made by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

A potential class action lawsuit could've involved about 1.6 million women and could've cost the Wal-Mart billions of dollars if the company lost the case. But the Court ruled that the women who brought up the lawsuit could take Wal-Mart to court as individuals. This means less potential money for the plaintiffs as well as less pressure on Wal-Mart to settle out of court.